It’s lying season in the NFL, so it’s hard to know what to do with reports around the league right now – especially those involving the draft. But from the outside it doesn’t seem like Shedeur Sanders had a particularly good week at the NFL Combine in terms of his draft stock.
There have been numerous reports that Cam Ward is running away with the crown as this year’s top quarterback prospect, and it seems like not every team is comfortable with the added elements Sanders might bring to the table in his NFL career.
“Two of the things I heard the most this week are teams are worried about Shedeur Sanders’ baggage and were really impressed with Jalen Milroe’s interviews,” The Athletic’s Vic Tafur tweeted before adding that Shedeur’s “entourage, money he already has, [and] his dad potentially being a loud factor” were factors teams are considering.
Mock drafts have been projecting Sanders to slip a little in recent days and an NFL.com mock on Monday had him sliding all the way to the 29th pick.
Later on Monday, league insider Josina Anderson reported that a quarterbacks coach who met with Sanders in Indianapolis described him as “brash” and “arrogant” and she added a long scathing remark on the coach and anyone else with perceived bias towards “the culture” associated with Sanders.
“I am disappointed to hear that a quarterbacks coach from a team drafting in the top 7 referred to Shedeur Sanders as coming off “brash” and “arrogant” in his team interview and making his assessment known to a number of people, per source. I’m purposely not naming the team, as not to directly call the team out. I’m just sharing that this coach’s personal assessment is the direct opposite from how Sanders came across to many reporters in his press conference with the media at the Combine. Sanders appeared to go out of his way to acknowledge multiple media members, regardless if they were recognizable or not.
He seemed cordial, polite, witty, thoughtful along with being confident (as many athletes are). Alternately, these observations were distinctly different from how another QB prospect came off to some in the media last year in Indy. According to league sources, said QB coach seems to have issue with “the culture” of athletes who have broad fame and financial success before entering the NFL, and in their* opinions, appears to them to have a problem certain athletes—I’ll leave it at that.
This is how pre-Draft evaluations can get jacked because of evaluators who don’t seemingly possess the discernment to detect intangible traits that are connected to the will and drive to win without being a stat, or delineated in an analytics report.
He’s literally Deion Sanders’ son, and despite growing up different from most, seemed fairly grounded. Hopefully any potential biases towards “the culture” are being checked at the door, as not to unduly impact stock & business. The modern day college athlete is evolving, as is the scale of business and opportunities surrounding them before entering professional leagues. Adaption sounds necessary, and not just for Sanders.“
Anderson didn’t reveal which team didn’t come away impressed with Sanders, but it sounds like the general sentiment in Indianapolis last week was that Sanders could be on the board when the Raiders are on the clock with the no. 6 pick.
For Shedeur’s part, he responded to Anderson’s report that he “came off as arrogant” in a team meeting, and his message was short…
“How u know.”
ESPN’s Todd McShay added to Anderson’s report a little on Monday and he said there were some who met with Shedeur he didn’t feel like he came across as interested.
“The two people that I spoke to were in meetings and had these individual meetings that I just laid out to you what they are, who’s in there and why they’re important — teams in the top 10 drafting that need a quarterback,” McShay said on his podcast.
“The two people that I spoke to in these positions left the meeting feeling like Shedeur Sanders was not overly concerned with what they thought of him. They had a 15-minute meeting with them, and when they were done, they both said in different ways, different words, that they did not feel like Shedeur Sanders cared all that much about what that organization thought of him.”
McShay discusses Shedeur at the 4:30 mark below (YouTube)…
One of the challenges teams face with Sanders and any prospect entering the draft, is trying to figure out how a twenty-something year old prospect is going to develop as a professional and as an adult.
Sometimes players come across differently than they intend and that’s why good teams work hard to get to know prospects as well as they can before making projections on character.
Sanders has a dynamic around him with his father that isn’t like many prospects that have come before him. In some ways, Deion’s presence will give him an advantage over other players, and there are teams that might not be comfortable with, as Tafur said, “his dad potentially being a loud factor.”
One thing we do know about Sanders, though, is that he is one of the toughest players in the draft. He has proven he can take hits, and his body can hold up to the abuse that comes with being an NFL quarterback.
Additionally, he can make the throws required to be an NFL quarterback and he has a good presence in the pocket. He’s not a perfect prospect, but he is talented enough to be a good quarterback at the NFL level.
It will be interesting to see how the next seven weeks play out because a scenario where Shedeur falls to the Raiders at pick no. 6 suddenly seems like a possibility – and almost no one was saying that could happen a few months ago.
x: @raidersbeat
His talent doesn’t match his arrogance & he’s clearly stupid
Might want to look in a mirror with that uneducated comment. You sound arrogant and brash. At least he’s proven his talent level to have earned his confidence.
I don’t care about the arrogance, it’s probably just bravado, but I watched two draft guys on the DP show this morning , both said the guy just doesn’t have round 1 value in his skill set. Listen, Little Prime has a lot to learn to play the game, and he may never have the arm to make NFL throws, it don’t matter what comes out of his mouth. Q Myers wants the Raiders to go all in? Stop it, just stop it.
Let him fall to Round Two where a Player with his Skills Belongs not to mention additional and probable issues… Please Raiders – Stay Away @ 6
Props to Josina for making this point. I know it’s all part of the draft hype machine, but I despise all the argentine that is given to anonymous team employees to basically slander young men on the verge of the biggest moment of their young lives. And who knows what biases, prejudices and agendas these team sources might have.
To be clear, I don’t like Deion. He strikes me as a crooked preacher who is perpetually full of BS. He was also arguably the greatest cover CB of all time. Think the Falcons, 49ers or Cowboys regretted having him on their teams?
Stupid autocorrect. I meant airtime, not Argentine lol.